Contents

Hard working, wholesome and big-hearted—Gunnar's wide-Texas grin says it all. But don't let his aw-shucks demeanor fool you: behind those pearly whites is a mountain of talent, ambition and charm. This young man didn't come to Nashville to just run the soundboard at The Bluebird Café, nor did he leave his friends back in Austin to spend three years knocking on doors without success.

Gunnar’s here to break it big, and with Scarlett he may have found his singing soulmate.

Gunnar and Scalett both work at the Bluebird Cafe. He encourages her to turn some poems she's written into songs, and volunteers her to sing at an open mic night. She gets him to accompany her on guitar.
Watty White hears them singing and offers to cut a demo for them. He also phones Rayna Jaymes to give her a listen.
Sometime later, when Rayna's aiming to start her own record label, she remembers, and has Scarlett and Gunnar invited to audition for her. However, Gunnar is grieving for his brother, Jason, and doesn't make it to the audition. Scarlett auditions alone, with her banjo. Rayna leaves the audition early, but is impressed enough that Scarlett is offered a recording contract. However, she keeps the offer a secret from Gunnar, until their new upstairs neighbor, Will Lexington, hands them some mail that he says was misdirected.

Will seems to be a good influence on Gunnar, getting him song-writing again. Will takes Gunnar out, playing chicken with a train. At first, Gunnar is irate. "We should be dead," he yells at Will. "But we're not," Will shouts back. "Let's do it again," agrees Gunnar.

Scarlett arranges for Gunnar to be given a chance to audition for Rayna, but he's been trying out a different kind of music with Will, and wants time to figure out what kind of music he wants to play. He finds some lyrics written by his dead brother and, with some tips on performance from Will, impresses so much that a girl walks up and hands him her phone number, and an agent, Jack Nelson, offers to record a demo for him. He lets the agent think that the music was his. Back home, Gunnar explains to Will why he hadn't mentioned Jason. He'd feared he might return to a dark place. He says something to Will about not wanting things to ever change, and is shocked when Will tries to kiss him. He yells at him to leave.

In jail after a brawl in a bar, Will confesses to Gunnar that he's gay. Scarlett bails them out, but threatens to break up with Gunnar. Gunnar abandons his brother's music and the bad boy image that went with it.